Matewan tells the intricate story of labor organization and backlash in 1920 in the coal-mining community of Matewan, West Virginia. Far from a schematic tale of ideologies clashing, this is a truly human story, vividly rendered by Sayles, his cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and the many fine actors in the cast including Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell and David Strathairn.